G.R. No. L-13339; June 30, 1960
People of the Philippines, plaintiff-appellee, vs. Ponciano Mitra, et al., defendants. (Ponciano Mitra, Virginio Zurbito, and Jesus Mitra, defendants-appellants.)

FACTS

Ponciano Mitra, Jesus Mitra, Virginio Zurbito, Mario Ballesteros, and Felizardo Cantuba were charged with murder for killing Manuel Brabante. After the prosecution presented its evidence, the court (Judge Pascual Santos) granted a motion to quash the case against Ballesteros and Cantuba on November 12, 1956, due to lack of prima facie evidence and proof of conspiracy. The dismissal was provisional, allowing revival if other accused implicated them. The trial continued for the remaining three accused before a different judge (Judge Ambrosio Dollete). On November 11, 1957, Judge Dollete found a conspiracy among all five accused, convicted Ponciano Mitra, Jesus Mitra, and Zurbito of murder, and directed the fiscal to take steps against Ballesteros and Cantuba. The three convicted accused appealed.
The evidence established that on April 24, 1955, at sitio Cawacawa, Batuan, Masbate, the victim Manuel Brabante was visiting his aunt with his sisters Avelina and Maria. The five accused, led by Ponciano Mitra, arrived. Ponciano immediately unsheathed his bolo and struck at Manuel, missing and hitting a ladder post. The sisters urged Manuel to flee, and all five accused chased him. The sisters later found Manuel dead about 150 meters away, with multiple fatal wounds from a sharp-pointed bolo. Ponciano Mitra surrendered to police that afternoon, confessing he stabbed the deceased and surrendering weapons. The police blotter recorded his surrender and the arrest of Felizardo Cantuba. No eyewitnesses saw the actual stabbing.
At trial, Jesus Mitra claimed alibi, stating he left the area at 11:00 AM and stayed home. Ponciano Mitra claimed self-defense, alleging the deceased initiated the attack with a fist blow, after which he ran and was chased and attacked by the deceased with a bolo, forcing him to defend himself with his own bolo. Virginio Zurbito also claimed alibi, stating he was at a different barrio all day.

ISSUE

Whether the trial court erred in finding appellants Ponciano Mitra, Jesus Mitra, and Virginio Zurbito guilty of murder.

RULING

The Supreme Court affirmed the conviction for murder but modified the penalty for Ponciano Mitra. The court found the testimonies of the prosecution witnesses (Avelina and Maria Brabante) credible and sufficient to establish guilt beyond reasonable doubt. Their positive identification of the appellants as among the pursuers, coupled with the discovery of the victim’s body shortly after the chase and Ponciano Mitra’s voluntary surrender and confession, formed an unbroken chain of events leading to the conclusion that the appellants killed the victim.
The defense of alibi by Jesus Mitra and Virginio Zurbito was rejected for being weak and uncorroborated. Ponciano Mitra’s claim of self-defense was untenable because he failed to prove unlawful aggression by the victim; his own testimony indicated the aggression had ceased when he ran away, and the nature and number of the victim’s wounds were inconsistent with a plea of self-defense.
The crime was murder qualified by abuse of superior strength, as the accused were all armed and superior in number to the unarmed victim. The trial court correctly found appellants guilty of murder. The Supreme Court noted the trial court’s error in finding conspiracy and directing action against the previously dismissed accused (Ballesteros and Cantuba) was immaterial to the appeal of the three convicted appellants.
Ponciano Mitra was entitled to the mitigating circumstance of voluntary surrender. His sentence was reduced. Applying the Indeterminate Sentence Law, he was sentenced to an indeterminate penalty of 10 years and 1 day of prision mayor as minimum, to 17 years, 4 months, and 1 day of reclusion temporal as maximum. The judgment was modified accordingly and affirmed.